The Kerala police on Friday, 2 June arrested a West Bengal native for allegedly setting fire to a coach of an express train which was halted at Kannur railway station in the wee hours of Thursday, 1 June.
He said he was a beggar, undergoing mental trauma.
North Zone IG Neeraj Kumar Gupta said the man is suspected to have done the act “due to mental trauma”, as he could not get any money from begging in the state.
Gupta, who addressed the media in Kannur, said that based on the investigation, Prosoonjit Sikdar from 24 South Parganas in West Bengal was arrested, and will be produced before the court.
“He came arrived at Thalassery around three days ago and walked to Kannur. At night, he went to this coach. He is a person who smokes beedi. He used a matchbox and burned some portion of the train continued to burn, and the entire coach was gutted,” Gupta said, adding that sufficient evidence to connect him with the crime was available.
Related: Kerala train arson case: Court grants custody of accused to NIA
No links with Elathur train arson
The incident took place on the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train in which two months ago, a man had set fire to his co-passengers, which resulted in three deaths, including that of a toddler, leading to speculation that it might be a case of sabotage and connected to the earlier crime.
However, the senior police official said that as of now, there was no connection with the 2 April Elathur train arson case that took place in Kozhikode on the same Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train.
Gupta said that as per the preliminary investigation, it was found that the accused used to work as a waiter in many hotels at several places but later started earing a living by selling discarded plastic bottles.
Over the past two years, he stopped doing it started begging, Gupta said.
“When he reached Thalassery, he could not get any money through begging and was in mental trauma and walked to Kannur. And because of his mental trauma, he set the train coach on fire,” the IG said
“Prima facie, he was completely frustrated because he could not collect any money from begging. Because of agony, he did this act,” Gupta added.
Central agencies investigate
Central agencies such as the Intelligence Bureau and the National Investigation Agency arrived at the scene on Thursday, 1 June, morning to investigate all possible angles, including sabotage.
The fire was noticed by some station staff at around 1.30 am and they informed the Kannur Fire and Rescue Station which dispatched four units to deal with the blaze. The fire was contained at around 3.15 am, a fire rescue officer said.
The train was stationary on track 20-30 metres away from the platform and around 100 metres from a nearby Bharat Petroleum fuel depot, a fire rescue official said, adding that one of its coaches was completely engulfed in flames when they reached there.
The incident occurred after all the passengers had deboarded, and therefore, no one was injured, an officer of RPS Kannur had said.
Visuals aired on TV channels showed huge flames engulfing the coach and sending thick plumes of smoke into the air.
Also Read: Kerala train arson: NIA takes over probe; Saifi shifted to jail
Elathur train arson
On 2 April night, three people, including a baby, died in a train arson incident in Kozhikode district, which shocked the country. On that day, accused Shahrukh Saifi had allegedly set his co-passengers on fire onboard the Alappuzha-Kannur Executive Express train when it reached Korapuzha bridge near Elathur in Kozhikode.
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